The Forgotten
by The Peridot Shade
Summary: Severus Snape thought he was done with war, Dark Lords, and Harry Potter when he survived the Battle of Hogwarts unscathed. Now, a new villain has risen, and Severus finds himself involved in yet another war against the Dark. Oh well, two out of three isn't bad, right? Or so he thinks. PERMANENT HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**Rated T for instances of violence**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, the disclaimer would be a lot more creative.**

_Severus watched in resignation as the Dark Lord hissed something to his snake. The Potions Master knew this was the end. He could only hope that Potter had found the memories he'd placed next to the Pensieve in the Headmaster's office._

_The snake lunged…and stopped, halted abruptly by an invisible wall._

_The silence was deafening._

"_Who did this?" Voldemort half shrieked, half hissed, "Who is there?"_

_No reply came from within the shadows that lingered in the corners of the room. Not that Severus had expected one. Not even the Gryffindor Golden Boy was foolish enough to step forward to face the Dark Lord's wrath when there was no one being threatened._

_Voldemort turned, sweeping the room with his gaze. "We will discuss this later," he ordered Severus, "I have an ultimatum to deliver."_

_The Dark Lord swept out of the room, Nagini at his heels._

_A voice began to boom across the grounds…_

…and Severus Snape woke with a start, breathing heavily. He hadn't had that particular nightmare in years, not since the last time he'd seen Potter lurking in the background of a Ministry dinner, shortly before the annoying creature vanished off the face of the earth. He supposed that said something about his state of mind, or perhaps the current state of affairs. There were rumors of Death Eater-like activities occurring somewhere in Surrey. More disturbing were the rumors of the rise of a new Dark Lord, one whose sign of three broken wands was appearing increasingly among Severus's old set. Thankfully, Draco hadn't bought into Lord Adonis's ideas. The man's head must be more swollen than Potter's for him to be calling himself by the name of a mythological figure famous for his looks. Of course, that could be his actual name, in which case he is just stupid.

Severus sighed and rolled out of bed. As long as he was awake, he might as well have a glass of water and a sandwich. He cast a quick Tempus. 4:45. He shrugged. He probably should get a head start on the day's potions. He would have woken up in another fifteen minutes anyway.

The Potions Master slipped on his favorite black robe and walked down the stairs of his house at Spinner's End. Only seven years before, he would have been at Hogwarts by now, preparing for a new horde of rowdy brats, but he had quit his post after the events of the Battle of Hogwarts. He could longer summon the patience to attempt to instill any information or common sense in teenage brains. As it was, August 20 held no frantic planning or endless meetings for Severus.

A sudden, quiet scuff interrupted his thoughts. Severus's breath caught in his throat. Someone was in his house, just on the other side of the bookshelf-door.

Severus eased the door open slightly, peering into the room. A dark-cloaked figure stood in the center of the room with a lit wand upraised, examining each item of furniture. He slipped out the door while the figure's back was turned, reaching for the wand in his robe pocket. He jumped when a hand came over his mouth from behind.

The figure in the center of the room turned. Now that Severus was closer, he could see that the figure was quite small and slender with a feminine air. The cloak was not black as he had originally thought, but a dark grey that seemed to fade into the background.

The stranger addressed his captor. "You can release him now, Blink. We came to help, not harm."

Severus could almost see the skeptical glance his captor gave the figure whose voice was decidedly feminine.

The woman darted a reproving glance at his captor. The hand was removed from his mouth, and Severus could feel the shift in the air as the stranger moved back and to the side. Severus could make out a taller figure dressed in the same color cloak from the corner of his eye.

"Who are you?" Severus demanded of the woman. "What are you doing in my house? For that matter, how did you get past my wards?"

The woman giggled, proving Severus's assumption that she was fairly young. "Wards aren't that hard to get past when you understand what they're meant to do. The purpose determines the construction. My friend and I simply slipped through the support structure."

The Potions Master's jaw dropped. That was difficult magic that required a great deal of experience. Some of the older Death Eaters and the Dark Lord had been able to do it, and Dumbledore had excelled at it. Except for that time with the ring.

"And my other questions?" he demanded.

The woman appeared to be about to answer, but a hoarse male voice cut in. "They'll have to wait. The more important question is why we are still standing here when Lord Adonis and twenty-five of his followers are at the door."

Severus turned toward the man at his side. "What?"

The two strangers ignored him. "You're certain, Blink?" the woman asked.

The man simply nodded.

"Right, then. Professor Snape, I don't have time to explain how we know this, but we expected Adonis to come here tonight to either recruit or kill you. We grew up in the shadow of the Second War, so we came to offer assistance in escaping the clutches of yet another Dark Lord. Will you allow us to help you?"

Severus nodded. He had no desire to make the mistakes of his youth all over again.

The woman nodded back. "Blink, are the protective wards still up?"

The man shook his head and grabbed Severus's arm. The woman took a position facing front entrance.

"Go with Blink, Professor, he'll take you to our safe house. I'll leave a few surprises to slow them down. Is there anything you wish brought to you?"

Severus cleared his throat, his natural mistrust returning, and resolved to be on his guard the instant he left the house. "The photo album and portable Pensieve on the second shelf to the left of the door. I'd rather not leave them to a Dark Lord's mercies."

The woman grabbed the specified items and shrunk them nonverbally, placing them in a pocket of her robe. "Go, Blink!"

The man pulled Severus to the back door, looking back at the woman once more. "Be careful, Whirl," he said, still hoarse.

The next moment, Severus felt a tug deep in his stomach and the two disapparated.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: From this chapter on, there will be a character that is slightly fond of profanity. You have been warned.**

Severus blinked as the spinning and tugging of apparation ended. He was standing on the front step of a weathered stone cottage in the middle of a garden full of plants one would expect to find in the Herbology greenhouses. He could see a Venomous Tentacula close to the stone wall on his left, and he was absolutely certain the plant just to his right was a Bubotuber.

The man who'd brought him here (Blink? Was that what the woman had called him?) tugged on his arm and Severus immediately swung around, wand pointed at the stranger.

"Explain. Now." Severus glared at the man.

The man held up his hands, attempting to placate the Potions Master. Just as Severus was about to rephrase his demand, the door opened.

Out stepped another grey-cloaked figure. This one spoke immediately in a voice identifiable as female. "When Blink met Search, what was she searching for?"

The man answered in his very hoarse voice, "A toad."

The newcomer nodded and turned to Severus. "What were Albus Dumbledore's last words?"

The Potions Master went cold. Who were these people? He cleared this suddenly tight throat. "He said, 'Severus…please…'," Severus gritted out. He glared at the woman as she nodded and stepped aside.

"Come in, Professor," she said, "I promise to answer your questions once we're safe from prying ears." The woman turned and led the way into the house.

Severus, now slightly intrigued but still wary, followed the woman into a large sitting room furnished with large couches in tan and chocolate brown. The walls were painted beige and a round wood and glass table sat in the center of a dark brown and cream rug. Newspaper clippings were fixed to a Muggle bulletin board on the wall farthest from the entryway. The previous day's edition of the Daily Prophet lay on the table beside an enormous book entitled _Wards, Wands, and Words: The Use of Intent-Based Protective and Preventive Incantations_. A half-eaten scone rested on a chipped blue-and-green-botanical-patterned china plate balanced on the arm of the largest couch, upon which was stretched out another grey-clad form.

The woman walked over to her colleague. "Strike! Wake up, Blink's brought Professor Snape." She shook the stranger's shoulder.

The figure grunted and rolled over. "Leave me 'lone, Search. I was up half the night plannin' the operation, gimme a break," the figure grumbled in a man's voice.

"Strike," the hoarse man said, a warning note in _his_ voice.

The man on the couch shot up. "Bloody hell, mate, you talked!"

Severus stared. These people just got more and more peculiar. "Could someone _please_ explain to me what is going on, or do I have to simply assume you are lunatics and go from there?"

At that precise moment, a quiet alarm sounded and the man from the couch crossed to the door and opened it. He demanded of the figure on the steps, whom Severus suspected was the woman from his house, "How many brothers did Whirl have before the Battle of Hogwarts?"

The woman answered calmly. "Six." She walked inside and the man shut the door behind her. She looked around. "Oh, excellent, everyone's here except for Flit and Chop."

Two more figures walked in from another room. "We thought we heard the alarm go off," one said, a chiming dreamy quality to her sweet voice.

The other nodded. "I see you were successful."

The group settled themselves on the couches. The woman who had met them at the door gestured Severus toward a seat between her and the man with the hoarse voice.

"Now that we're all here, we can begin," the woman said from her seat beside Severus, "First, I believe some introductions are in order. Professor Snape needs no introduction. We were all at Hogwarts before the Battle, sir. My nickname is Search. The man to my left with the big mouth and a love of sleep is Strike. Directly across from you, the dreamy one is Flit, and the man beside her is Chop. The lovely lady whom you met at your house is called Whirl. And of course, our man of few words is Blink. We prefer not to use our real names in case someone hears, especially since we're believed to be dead."

Severus nodded slowly, memorizing the names, voices, and relative heights of his new acquaintances. "Why do you remain cloaked in your house? What do you want from me? Why should I trust you?" he asked, sneering.

Whirl took over from Search. "We stay cloaked for the same reason we use nicknames: we don't want to be accidentally recognized when the Ministry thinks we're dead. Even our families don't know where we are. One of our sources even said that Lord Adonis is claiming responsibility for our deaths. We were fairly well-known at one point."

Search took up the explanation, "As for what we want, all we want is help opposing Adonis. We don't like him any more than we liked Voldemort, which is saying something." Her eyes flicked almost imperceptibly towards Blink.

"Besides, Blink feels he owes you a debt," Flit put in dreamily.

"Bloody sense of honor's going to get him killed one day," Strike muttered.

Severus looked toward Blink. The man was sitting with his arms and legs crossed, revealing Muggle jeans and a button-down white shirt beneath his cloak. Severus raised an eyebrow, and Blink returned the gesture with a graceful inclination of the head.

The Potions Master turned back in time to see Search shaking her head at Flit. Flit simply shrugged and tilted her head back. Severus could see the ends of long white-blond hair peeking out from under her hood.

The former professor cleared his throat. "And _how_ exactly do you intend to oppose a Dark Lord with six people? Seven if you actually manage to convince me, which I highly doubt." He had already resolved to corner Search later and ask her about Blink. The man seemed tailor-made for a good mystery.

Surprisingly, Strike answered this time. "Sabotage, at least until we expose Adonis to the public. Our latest attempt is to prevent him from leaving a raid before the Aurors arrive. Then we'll at least have reliable witnesses to confirm his existence. Our only problem is ensuring that he's actually there. We attempted a variation of our current plan a few weeks ago. The Anti-Apparation wards worked brilliantly, as did the wards preventing the use of Portkeys. Of course, all that work, and Adonis bloody well wasn't there!"

Severus noted that Strike's maturity level seemed to vacillate between five years old and middle-aged. He must have been a Gryffindor.

The Potions Master sneered at the man. "How Gryffindor of you to charge in without knowing if your target is present. It's obvious why you require my assistance."

Strike bristled and opened his mouth to retort, but Severus cut him off. "I will help you since you so obviously need some common sense in this outfit. I will even provide the bait to lure Adonis to a location of your choice."

Search's smile showed beneath the bottom of her hood. "Welcome aboard, Professor. I can guarantee it's going to be a wild ride."

**Can you guess who Strike, Whirl, Chop, Flit, Search, and Blink are?**

**Also, I apologize if my description of Blink's voice threw anyone off. I know Rowling describes Lupin's voice as hoarse in PoA, but this guy isn't a werewolf. He just hasn't spoken in a long time.**

**Dumbledore's last words are taken from HBP page 595.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I apologize for waiting so long to update–I plead distraction by my summer internship, crazy schedule, sudden appearance of long-lost friends, and various activities involving my full attention. Also, my mom just had surgery a few weeks ago and I've been taking her where she needs to go while she's not supposed to be driving. I'll attempt to update at least once a week from here on out if you want me to continue writing it.**

"So," Severus said, leaning back into the couch, "How do you operate around here?"

Search turned to look at him. "We have something of a division of labor. I focus mainly on research and the interpretation of information brought in by Whirl. She's our scout, and Chop goes with her quite often to acquire food and medical supplies. The garden is his responsibility too. Flit is our resident expert on mythology, prophecy, and visions, although she also has a better understanding of human responses to events than the rest of us do. Strike is brilliant with strategy, while Blink is our protector."

Severus gazed at her curiously. "Protector?"

She nodded. "He's incredible with defensive magic, especially disarming, shields, and wards. He also used to be a highly respected Auror before the Ministry turned on him." She appeared to mutter something further under her breath. Severus could have sworn it sounded like "you'd think they'd have learned something after the first time."

The Potions Master regarded Blink curiously. The man was probably quite bitter if his employers had betrayed him twice.

Whirl interrupted his thoughts. "Would you like a tour of the house, Professor?"

Severus studied the young woman carefully. Was that a hint of panic he'd heard in her voice? "That would be helpful," he declared, standing as the others stood.

Whirl led the way through a door in the wall adjacent to the front entrance. A short hallway was revealed with a staircase at the opposite end and a cream-colored door was immediately to Severus's right as he followed his hosts.

Whirl opened the door on the right and Severus peered inside. The room was fully equipped kitchen with a large round table in the center.

"This is where we eat most meals," Whirl explained, "Breakfast is usually around seven in the morning unless there's been a raid. Then we just eat whenever we can. Lunch is up to the individual, but dinner is always at six-thirty. Blink likes to cook, so you should direct any requests to him. I recommend trying his breakfasts. They're _amazing_."

Once again Severus got the impression of both maturity and childishness from his new allies.

Whirl closed the door and led the group upstairs. A long beige hall began at the top of the stairs, stretching out to the left and right of the stairwell. Tan doors dotted each wall.

Whirl headed down the hall to the right, pointing out different doors. "Over here is Search's room, next to the library. Strike's room is opposite hers, but beside the operation headquarters." She opened the door to reveal a table in the center of a room covered in maps. "Next is my room, then the armory, and the last door is this end's bathroom." Whirl turned to stride in the opposite direction. "Now we reach Chop's room and the room he's converted into a greenhouse. Flit is across the hall, next to her observatory. These rooms here are empty–you can use one as a bedroom and set up a lab in the other if you'd like. The bathroom is right next to your new rooms, and this…" Whirl paused, "…is off limits."

Severus blinked, startled. "Why?"

Strike answered him this time. "That's Blink's room, so don't go in there 'less you want your balls hexed off."

Search rounded on him, palm flying to slap Strike across the cheek. "Strike! You know perfectly well that Blink would never do that!"

Strike rubbed his cheek. "You sure 'bout that, Search? Blink can be damn scary when he's angry. Remember that time at his godfather's house?"

Strike, Search, and Whirl all shuddered. Severus looked at Blink. He had the distinct impression that the younger man was smirking.


End file.
